Gunpoint
by turhanftw
Summary: Something has gone wrong on a mission to retrieve data from one of Orochimaru's previous hideouts. What could it possibly be?


My first AU fanfiction! And quite possibly my longest thus far. I'll probably end up updating weekly, so be on the lookout for more chapters!

**Disclaimer: **Kishimoto owns all characters!

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There was nothing but a single, dim light at the end of the hallway as he approached the rendezvous point. Something told him to double back and make sure no one was injured in any of the dark rooms he passed, but he figured the quicker he got to his team mates, the quicker they would be able to get back to Konoha. As he took the last few noiseless steps to the door, his hand eased slowly to the gun on the right side of his waist. He was hoping he wouldn't have to use it, but the way General Tsunade sounded when she gave him the orders, he couldn't be too careful.

The door slid open quietly, his breath held with his hand on the trigger.

"Sai, is that you?" a soft whisper called from far into the room. The direction from which it came wasn't clear.

"Sakura? Is everything alrigh…"

"Shh!" She commanded. Something else must have been in the room with them. "Now listen carefully and follow my direction quickly. I can't move and I don't want to waste too much time. A few paces to your left, there should be a switch panel for the light. I need you to switch on the one on the left. Careful not to make too much noise."

He quickly adhered to her directions and what he saw when he turned around wasn't at all what he was expecting. It was the lifeless body of a fellow Konohagakure Commander, Rock Lee. His throat was ripped out with what seemed to be a vicious animal bite.

"Beside you, Sai!" Three rounds were fired from across the room. A distressing whimper was followed by a thud. Whatever it was, was laying on the floor, bleeding from its stomach, bullet casings surrounding.

Sai was quick to switch his focus from the beast to Sakura, who was sitting propped up against the far wall. He ran as quickly as he could to her side. Blood was running down the side of her torso coupled with a few shallow nicks on her legs.

"It's Orochimaru. He must have finally figured out a way to artificially create beasts, just like General Tsunade had feared." She adjusted herself, but without much success. The wound on her side was just too deep.

"Try not to move so much, Sakura, if we could just find a way to stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down…" A quick scan of the room told him that there didn't seem to be anything.

"My bag. It should be near the door somewhere, I dropped it as soon as we entered. Could you run and get it. There should be some thing in there to wrap it. I used some of it on Captain Asuma's leg earlier."

"Captain Asuma's came with you two as well? Where is he?" He rushed to the front of the room, frantically searching through all the debris, paper, and broken glass scattered all over the floor. Sticking out from under a box, he saw a strap. It was Sakura's medical bag.

"Yes, he, Shino, Lee and I. All three of them are dead. We were dispatched here to see what exactly Orochimaru had done in this building since we had received word from the Hyūga that he had relocated yet again. I'm not sure exactly what we've found, but we need to get out of here quickly."

"But what about Shino, Lee and Captain Asuma? Are we just going to leave them here like this?" He rushed toward her and collapsed with the bag in front of him, rummaging to find the cloth.

"We have no choice, Sai. I'm too heavily wounded and there's no telling how many more of these beasts are lurking around. The only thing I can think of is that we lock their bodies in this room somehow until another team with some prior intelligence back here to retrieve their bodies." She snatched the bag from him and within seconds, the cloth was pulled from it. It was just enough to wrap around her body 3 times. "This should be enough to keep it under control at least until I can get proper medical attention. Now, take my gun and go find Asuma and Shino. Bring them back here and we'll lock the door and be on our way."

Sakura seemed rather calm about everything, especially with Lee's dead corpse sitting only feet away from here. This wasn't at all like her, considering all that she had taught him about emotion. Sai stood and rushed out of the room, a gun in each hand each of his senses focused on the task at hand.

"Shino should be in the room 2 doors down, and Asuma, at the end of the hall your right. Be careful." She uttered before he left.

"Understood." Considering Asuma was the furthest away, he decided to get him first. If something were to go wrong, it would be better to get the heavier body first. His inched down the long dark hall as quickly as he could, careful not to disturb anything that might be lurking.

When he finally reached the end of the hall, he turned and what he saw wasn't at all what he expected. Unlike Rock Lee's body, which had been ripped open with fangs, Captain Asuma appeared to have bullet holes in his chest. He noticed something glimmering at his feet and looked down. Bullet casings… from Konoha. This couldn't be right. Even if it weren't someone from Konoha, who could it have been? The beasts he had seen previously surely wouldn't have been able to operate a weapon, let alone get a shot at Captain Asuma.

He hurried over to the body and lifted Asuma's arm over his shoulder and stood up slowly and started the trek back to the room at the end of the corridor. Within a minute, he was back to the room with Sakura, only Sakura wasn't where she had been before. The room was empty save for the debris and Rock Lee's dead body. Had she gone to get Shino? He pondered as he gently set Asuma against a wall.

That's when he heard a large thud in the next room. He stood up and ran over to the next room to see Sakura frantically sifting through papers and folders on a desk in the corner, a flashlight in her hand.

"Sakura? What are you doing?" He was puzzled, not only because she was on her feet but what she could possibly be looking for?

"Just be quiet!" Her tone was harsh and severe. It didn't sound one bit like Sakura. He slowly approached her with caution to see what the documents on the table contained.

"I could help you fin…." Without the time to react, there was nothing he could do but feel the knife pierce his flesh, a few inches from his heart. "…Sak…Sa.." He fell to his knees. He slowly raised his chin to look at her face and what he saw horrified him.

"It was only a matter of time before they sent you Konoha brats to come check up on me." It was Sakura speaking, this time however, her voice was raspy and deep. Her eyes weren't green, they were yellow and snakelike. This wasn't Sakura at all, it was Orochimaru. "But I guess I can look on the bright side. At least I have another body to experiment on."


End file.
